FCC WRC Panel Opposes New AWS Band, Undecided on 3650-3700 MHz
The FCC WRC Advisory Committee (WAC) voted Wed. to adopt a position against using 3.7-4.2 GHz as a band for advanced wireless services, agreeing with satellite operators. But the committee has not adopted a position on 3650-3700 MHz, a frequency the FCC has slated for limited use in the U.S.
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The action came as the WAC neared completion of work being done to prepare for WRC’s 2007 conference starting Oct. 22. The U.S. must adopt a position, then defend it at CITEL, which will develop a position for the Americas. “It will certainly be an issue at the conference,” a WAC source said, calling the central goal gauging global support for that band, one way or another. “There are certainly some regional differences as to how that band is treated,” the source said. The 3.7-4.2 GHz band “is heavily used in the U.S. for satellite downlinks,” said a high tech sector source. “That’s no surprise that they're proposing to take that off the table for the WRC.”
Identifying spectrum for IMT2000 -- as ITU terms 3G and other advanced wireless services -- is among the most contentious issues the WRC will field next year. “You can’t find frequencies below 6 GHz that someone isn’t using in some fashion and it’s going to vary across the world,” the high tech source said. Bands also under consideration worldwide for IMT2000 include 696-806 MHz, a possible source of interference in the 700 MHz band used by public safety agencies here, and 2.5-2.69 GHz, used in the U.S. for Wi-Fi.
Another WRC issue will be whether to set aside 2.5 GHz in the Americas for terrestrial use. “That’s a huge issue here in the U.S.,” a WAC source said: “We decided to use that band for terrestrial uses. In other parts of the world, that’s used for satellite systems. There some really strong differences in terms of do you remove it from region 2, which is the Americas? Do you allow for coordination or protection of terrestrial systems? How do you treat sharing in that band?”
The FCC agreed to use of 3650-3700 on a registered but unlicensed basis in rural and more remote areas, with protections for C-band receive stations and 3 DoD sites. High tech interests led by the WiMAX Forum and Intel, are pushing for use of the band in urban areas, but on a licensed basis. A few operators with experimental licenses are exploring use of the band.
EAC chmn and former NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory told us she couldn’t predict which issues will be most controversial at the WRC meeting, likely to be in Geneva. “I want to see what happens at the next CITEL meeting,” she said: “One thing we have been working very hard to do is to try to get our U.S. positions straight as early as possible so that we can go in and build some consensus. I think we're still in that process… We've been working to get our ducks together for U.S. industry and I think we're almost there.” Victory said during the meeting the group’s work appears to be “entering the home stretch.” Wed.’s meeting was WAC’s 10th since it started convening in Jan. 2004.